Reprinted from Truthdig
In this week's episode of "Scheer Intelligence" on KCRW, Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer speaks with Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges about the rewards of Hedges' unorthodox career as a minister and journalist covering the disintegration of societies on multiple continents, his working habits, and the consequences of elite neglect of the forces that turn civilized populations barbarian.
The two spoke in Philadelphia in late July as Democrats pilloried Republicans and their presidential candidate, Donald Trump.
"The Nazis before 1933 were buffoonish figures, as were Radovan Karadzic and Slobodan Milosevic in Yugoslavia," Hedges remarked. "And as Trump is. But when these buffoonish figures take power, they become extremely frightening."
"They are frightening," Scheer replied. But "what you're saying is they didn't come from nowhere."
"Right," said Hedges. "The Nazis came out of the collapse of Weimar. And Radovan Karadzic came out of the economic collapse of Yugoslavia."
"And Donald Trump came out of the collapse of the American economy," added Scheer.
"There you go," said Hedges. "That's how fascism -- and voting for Hillary Clinton's not going to make it better. We may get rid of Trump; we're not getting rid of the phenomenon. Trump is not the phenomenon. Trump is responding to the phenomenon. Unless we radically change that phenomenon, we're finished."
What is the phenomenon? Neoliberalism, a regime of economic policies supported and embodied by the Clintons that destroy the supply of jobs and good wages that ensures social order by satisfying a public's basic needs.
--Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly
Transcript:
Robert Scheer: Hi, this is Robert Scheer with another edition of "Scheer Intelligence," where the intelligence comes from my guests. And I certainly have an intelligent one now, and it's part of a series I call "American originals"--people that have somehow come out of our crazy-quilt of a culture and actually have integrity, have an interesting point of view. And Chris Hedges is certainly such a person. We're going to talk about events of -- we're doing this in Philadelphia at the time of the Democratic convention. Chris has been leading demonstrations, as well as writing about it. I've been covering this for Truthdig. And we're going to get to that. But I'd like to pick up on the theme of the American original, and basically address one question, [which] is: Why didn't you sell out? The culture leads people to have careerism trump everything. You certainly were the good student, you ended up at Harvard Divinity School. The other day, in one of these demonstrations, you wore your clerical collar --